The Thirteeth Step
by Dalek Prime
Summary: Edd and Marie always had a disagreement on their different tastes in music, but the middle Kanker believes that her boyfriend will enjoy one album that has a deep meaning to her


A/N: I don't own Ed, Edd n Eddy or anything else mentioned

* * *

"Just give it a chance" Marie offered

"I'd rather not" her boyfriend simply rejected

The couple had been like this for over a half an hour now. the reason for this constant back and forth between them was that Marie wanted her lover to sit down and listen to other one of her favorite bands like she had done in the past. Now Edd was always open to trying new things, but whenever his girlfriend offered to share her music with him to listen to, it usually left the poor boy is a headache. Make no mistake, Edd adored the blue-haired girl with all his heart, but her taste in music made him want to jam a pair of earplugs into his head out of fear of losing his hearing. The middle Kanker's favorite genre consisted of blaring guitars and animalistic screams and growls from the lead singer that for some reason counted as singing. From to a band with nine people wearing masks to a band named after a medieval torture device, Marie's love of heavy metal grated on her boyfriend's nerves and gave him a constant migraine.

Today, while Edd was staying over in his girlfriend's home, Marie had wanted him to listen one of her favorite albums from a band she absolutely adored while two hung out in her room. As one would imagine, Double-D was skeptical of subjecting his ears to another barrage of screeching guitars and demonic vocals. There was a time in earlier in their relationship where Eddward would simple tough it out and allow Marie to crack up her music to full blast whenever they rode together to school in her truck, leaving head with a headache the rest of the school day. The trailer park girl had since stopped playing her music in the car since then, but she would still unleash a little headbanging every now and again whenever he stayed over at her house.

"Oh, come on Double-D, I put up with your music" she reasoned

"Because it's actuality music" her lover defended "I can assure you Beethoven didn't need to scream 'God hates us' in any of his compositions"

"Ok, now your just being unfair" Marie retorted "Didn't you say that music is unbound by any sort of rules?"

She had him there. One thing Edd discovered during his time with Marie was that she could use his own words against him when the time came for it. true, the blue-haired Kanker was by no means a genius like her boyfriend was, but she had a sharp tongue and knew when to use it on Edd when the situation called for it.

"As I recall, you greatly enjoyed Hamilton" Eddward noted "and there was not an ounce of screaming in that"

"Yeah, but I don't enjoy listing to musical's every waking moment like you do" she explained

"On the contrary my dear turtledove, I'll have you know that I have quite an extensive catalogue of music that I enjoy" the cap-wearing teen said "for instance, I delight myself with the works of Mozart, Bach and Chopin. Though sometimes I go a bit underground and listen to the underrated compositions of Salieri"

Marie could give her boyfriend a deadpanned expression for several seconds before speaking.

"Your truly are a rebel, Double-D" she said dully "But I swear that this band is different from the others I've shown you"

"You said the same thing about Gwar and I was nearly thrown out of my house because of it" Edd chided

"Just please give this band a listen" she begged, fringing a cute voice as she did

Before Edd could once again shoot down any more of her pleas, Marie unleashed her ultimate weapon: the puppy dog eyes. It was a little-known fact that while the middle Kanker had a reputation of being a gruff, tough as nails tomboy—a form that she stayed true to at all times—she was capable of making her lover's heart melt with her dark blue eyes, leaving him at her mercy. Everyone within the Cul-De-Sac always assumed that Marie and her sisters only used force to get the Eds to do what they wanted, when in reality that wasn't the case at all, at least not anymore that is. Instead, they only needed to give them this blasted look in order to have the trio wrapped around their fingers.

"Ok, fine" he finally conceded with an exasperated sigh "What is it?"

Marie let out a quick squeal of delight before rushing over to her sack of cd's that sat on her dresser. After shuffling through several of them, she pulled out the one she was looking for before handing it to her lover. Double-D inspected the album cover and was already not liking what he was seeing so far. The band was named A Perfect Circle and the album's name was The Thirteenth Step. However, what really got the boy's attention was the image on the album's cover. It was it that of a pale white haired with a banana slug crawling across her face. While it wasn't a gratuitous as some of the other album covers he had seen in Marie's collection, it still didn't instill a lot of confidence that he was going to enjoy this. But he had already bowed down to the power of the puppy eyes and could not deny his lover now.

He handed it back to Marie, who then proceeded to place it in her cd player before turning off the lights. This caught Edd off-guard seeing that whenever his girlfriend that it usually meant that she was about fling him onto her bed and violate him, a habit she still carried with her. However, instead of tackling him and dragging him to her bed, she instead held out her hand and allowed for him to take it before leading him back to her bed where they then lied down on the bed. Double-D waited for the blue haired girl to jump his bones at any second, but instead she only curled against him and snuggled into his chest. Edd instinctively put an arm around her waist as the music began to play.

Rather than a cacophony of rage-filled sounds emanating from the speakers, a soft melodic combination of guitar and light drums seeped into the boy's ears. It was soft and almost hypnotic, like it could put him into a blissful trance at any moment. The leader singer didn't scream the lyrics, but sang softly that only added onto the trace-like feeling. However midway through the song, the tempo suddenly changed drastically, becoming heavier and more bombastic. However, rather than raise his voice to match the strengthening the music, he kept his tone as soft as he did when he first started singing. Normally, Double-D would've wanted to shut off the cd player, but the lyrics felt so real and powerful to him. It didn't take the boy long to understand that this song was about addiction, but rather than condemn those who fell into this vice, it was a song showing the personal struggle one went through in such a position.

The following song further extended that feeling of weakness and powerlessness at the mercy of an addiction. It was much shorter than the first, but the impact of the lyrics were not lost on the cap wearing Ed. While he had never fallen into such addictions, he started to see why Marie had wanted him to listen to this album in particular. The third track centered on the failures of those one trusted in their lives and the difficulties of forgiving them, which in this case Edd had some connection to. How many times had he giving Eddy a second, third, fourth and fifth chance after he had messed up on a colossal scale and dragged both him and Ed down with him in the process? he honestly lost count a long time ago.

Track after track Edd fell deeper and deeper into a state of euphoria, even the heavier songs didn't bother him at this point, for Marie explained the deeper and more darker meanings behind them. Even when she tried to get him into her much more violent music, she took the time to explain the meaning behind each song which always made her lover smile to no end. Just seeing Marie's face light up when she explained the themes of the songs of a Viking metal band made him feed off that sense of joy she felt telling him all of this. Double-D may not have a taste for heavy metal, but he appreciated how happy it made the woman he loved.

Soon enough, the cd finally came to an end with a beautiful song about slowly recovering from one's own vices and try to move on through life without them but still have their shadow hang over you constantly. Despite not wanting to move, Marie pulled himself from the bed and took out the cd and put it back in its case before switching the lights back on just as Edd had pulled himself into a sitting position on her bed.

"So, what did you think?" his lover inquired curiously as she sat next to him

"It was excellent, Marie!" he happily admitted "I doubt even Mozart would deny the magnificence of this work of art!"

"What's this? Eddward Vincent admitting he was wrong?" Marie replied, fringing surprise "I never thought I'd live to ever hear such a thing!"

"Let be known that I can be humbled every now and again my turtledove" Double-D said with a soft chuckle "I can see why it's one of your favorite"

"Yeah…" the middle Kanker breathed out in a more downtrodden tone "With good reason"

Marie didn't need to say anything to explain that last sentence, for Edd already knew. A few months into their relationship, Marie revealed to him a very vulnerable part of her past. When she was younger, she had an addiction to pills that nearly caused the end of her life when she accidently OD'd. Had it not been for her mother's quick actions by getting her to vomit up the pills before speeding off to the hospital, she would've died that night. After that night, she went on a long road to recovery that nearly dragged her back down into the pit she had just crawled out of, but with her family's support, she was clean by the time they first met the Ed's.

"I found this album in a bargain bin a couple of months after I OD'd" she said "I love this album because it let take a long hard look at myself without condemning me. I can't really say it saved my life, I did that on my own, but it did make feel more at peace with the rouge patch I was dealing with if that makes any sense"

"It does" Edd assured before kissing her cheek "No one should suffer like you did, turtledove"

"The only one who made me suffer was me" Marie said dejectedly "This album is a reminder of who I once was and what I could always slip back into"

"You forget Marie that don't have to face that void that follows you around" Double-D said "You have me, you have have your family. Even Ed and Eddy will be there to catch you if you ever fall again"

Marie couldn't help but let a single tear slid down from her eye as she gave her boyfriend a warm smile that he returned in kind. She then lightly punched his arm, her own way of saying thank you to him, though even a light punch from a Kanker could still leave a bruise.

"I don't deserve you, y'a know that?" she chuckled

"And yet here I am" he replied with a grin

With another smile, Marie leaned in for another kiss as she pushed him back onto the bed before straddling her lover. At this point, Double-D knew better than to try and stop his turtledove from what was about to happen. The only regret he had was that Marie didn't but the cd on repeat.


End file.
